Chapter 26: No Place for Them

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: No Place for Them

If she’d had a choice, she wouldn’t have been sent to the countryside in her past life. Her stepfather wouldn’t have traded her like a piece of cargo, passing her from one man’s arms to the next. While her stepfather was to blame for her suffering, wasn’t her own powerlessness—her fear of fighting back—also a cause?

But her brother was completely innocent!

He was so well-behaved. As long as he had a little something to eat, he would be perfectly quiet. But they wouldn’t even spare him a mouthful of food, and his mother couldn’t protect him. In the end, her brother was sent to an asylum and tormented to death.

And what about her mother, Xia Yingyu? In the end, she became a lofty, high-society matron, the very picture of grace and wealth.

In her past life, she had begged her mother for help more than once, but all she ever got in response were silent tears, after which she had no choice but to submit. She only learned later that before her mother had other children with Zhao Jinghai, she still held some genuine affection for her and Nuanyang. But after their mother got pregnant and gave birth to another child with Zhao Jinghai, she and Zhao Nuan Yang slowly became blemishes on her new life, unworthy of her love or effort.

By the time she had this rude awakening, she had already lost all hope.

Fortunately, she was grown up now and could take care of herself and her brother.

Zhao Nuanyue held the letter in her hand, but it felt as heavy as lead. She didn’t dare to open it.

Beside her, however, Zhao Nuan Yang looked at the letter in his sister’s hand with a hopeful gaze. He knew it was from their mother.

He hadn’t seen his mother in a very long time.

’What’s meant to come will come eventually.’ Zhao Nuanyue took a few deep breaths and finally tore open the envelope. Inside were a two-page letter and a dozen or so nationwide ration tickets.

The sight of the tickets made Zhao Nuanyue’s tears fall once more.

At least their mother had once doted on them.

The first page was filled with greetings for the siblings, urging them to be careful and take care of their health. The second page announced that she was pregnant and that they would have a little brother or sister next year. The letter ended by saying she would arrange train tickets for them to come home for the New Year at the end of the year.

After reading the letter, Zhao Nuan Yang ran to the riverbank and sat down on a rock.

Worried something might happen to her brother, Zhao Nuanyue had no time for her own feelings and quickly ran after him.

"Nuanyang, Mom is going to give us a baby brother or sister. Isn’t that nice?" Zhao Nuanyue asked, wanting to hear what her brother thought.

Zhao Nuan Yang shook his head. He didn’t dare meet his sister’s eyes, but he still voiced his thoughts. "I don’t want one!"

"Why?" Zhao Nuanyue asked again. She could let other things slide, but she was determined to help her brother, to gently encourage him to speak and express himself.

Zhao Nuan Yang didn’t answer, instead picking up a twig and drawing in the dirt.

He drew two adults in the foreground: a tall man and a woman in a dress, leading a little boy by the hand. A little girl skipped ahead of them, happily chasing a butterfly. Behind these four, two older children were toiling away—one washing dishes, the other mopping the floor...

Seeing the drawing on the ground, Zhao Nuanyue couldn’t hold it in any longer. Her nose stung, and tears streamed down her face.

Her brother didn’t say much, but he understood everything.

If there was a new baby brother or sister, that would be Zhao Jinghai’s child. In that home, there would be Zhao Huilan and that little child, but there would be no place for her and her brother. They would be treated as less than servants.

Seeing his sister crying, Zhao Nuan Yang’s eyes turned red as well. Glistening tears trickled down his trembling cheeks, but he still reached out to wipe them away for her, saying with great difficulty, "Don’t cry, Sister. Don’t cry. You still have Nuanyang!"

Zhao Nuanyue nodded, deeply moved. "That’s right. Sister has Nuanyang, and Nuanyang has Sister. Even if no one else loves us, we have to love ourselves."

"Yeah!" Zhao Nuan Yang nodded too. It was as if he had grown up in that instant, his mind becoming a little more mature.

Zhao Nuanyue wrote back to Xia Yingyu. In her letter, she said they would return at the end of the year if there were no work assignments, and she also inquired after her mother’s health, telling her to take good care of herself.

A large package had arrived with the letter, filled with thick clothes for Zhao Nuanyue and Zhao Nuan Yang. They were hand-me-downs, but in an era of scarcity, something was better than nothing.

Her brother had grown taller, and his old woolen sweater and pants were getting too small. So, during her free time, Zhao Nuanyue unraveled both of their woolen garments. She soaked the yarn in hot water to restore some of its elasticity and softness before starting to re-knit them.

Zhao Nuanyue first knitted a new, well-fitting set for her brother. The leftover yarn was only enough for a pair of woolen pants for herself. She then took apart her old padded jacket and re-fashioned it into a smaller one for herself. It would have to do for the coming winter.

Her own padded cotton shoes still fit, but Zhao Nuan Yang’s were too small. She had to cobble together a new pair for him using whatever scraps of material she could find.

Zhao Nuanyue had seen some of the elderly villagers collecting reed fluff. They would make it into reed shoes, stuffing the insides with dried fluff, which made them very warm.

So, Zhao Nuanyue took her brother to go and collect some reed fluff.

Yang Guanghui was curious and a little baffled. "Nuanyue, what are you guys doing with all that stuff?" he asked.

"It’s already late autumn, and it’s getting cold," Zhao Nuanyue explained. "We don’t just need to gather more firewood, we also need to make a few pairs of reed shoes. They’re really warm. I also think the reed fluff would make a good mat. If we weave one and put it under our bedrolls, it’ll keep us warmer."

Li Qiong frowned and grimaced. "Nuanyue, don’t you think those reed shoes are hideous?"

"Who cares if they’re ugly? The important thing is not to freeze," said Wang Yuan, who had already accepted her reality. A spoiled, city-girl attitude was useless in the countryside. "Nuanyue, I’ll go with you this afternoon. I want to make a couple of pairs, too. In the winter, it rains and snows so much that even the best padded shoes get ruined. Reed shoes are warm, and the wooden sole underneath lets you walk through rain and snow."

"Okay, let’s go together this afternoon," Zhao Nuanyue agreed. With more people, they could gather more.

This was their first time here; they had yet to experience a winter in Nianqiao Village. It was a damp, miserable cold that seeped right into your bones.

Even though Li Qiong thought the shoes were ugly, seeing everyone else go, she had no choice but to tag along. She didn’t want to freeze either.

Everyone began to busy themselves, making preparations for the coming winter and hauling all sorts of things back from the outdoors, bit by bit.

Zhao Nuan Yang loved to watch the reed fluff drift through the air. He stood mesmerized, completely still.

Zhao Nuanyue knew her brother was enjoying himself, so she didn’t call out to him.

However, by the time they had finished gathering the fluff an hour later, she turned to look for her brother, only to find he was gone.

"Nuanyang! Nuanyang!" Zhao Nuanyue’s heart seized with terror. ’Oh god, where did he go?’

’That scoundrel Wang Dadan is still lurking around the village. Could he have taken my brother?’

Just as Zhao Nuanyue was shouting anxiously, Zhao Nuan Yang emerged from a patch of reeds, covered in grime.